ANGRY BIRDS RIO

 Angry Birds, the ridiculously popular physics puzzler, is the 800-pound gorilla of the App Store. Whether in its original, iPad, or assorted spinoffs. Angry Birds dominates the sales charts. There are Angry Birds plush toys; a movie's in the works, and for all I know, Steve Jobs is going to invite the chubby, particularly irritated-looking red bird to join Apple's board of directors.

Developer Rovio Mobile has lent its considerable rub to promote someone else's movie: the animated feature, Rio, rolling out a themed version of the game for IPhone, iPod touch and iPad.

The movie tie-in necessitates some changes to the usual Angry Birds storyline. Instead of using your battalion of birds to crush the pigs and their assorted fortifications, you're smashing through cages to free the exotic bird heroes that star in the movie.

Otherwise, gomeplay in Angry Birds Rio will be familiar to onyone who's ployed any other gome in the franchise. Your birds hove different powers - some explode, some feature speed bursts, some split into three, and so on - which con come in handy when solving Angry Birds Rip's various puzzles.

As I write' this. Angry Birds Rio features two episodes, containing o totol of 60 levels. Four more episodes will be released throughout 2011 Angry Birds fanatics will probably enjoy this latest installment, and there's certainly plenty here to like, from the new puzzles to the jaunty tropical soundtrack. That said, the game loses something by not having the sniggering green pigs there to menace the birds.

Angry Birds Rio in its iPhone and iPad forms is a worthy addition, though not the series' high point.